Beauties and the Frogs, Part 5

Moments, it seemed, after she set her head on her pillow, Leia found herself on one of the more obscure paths in a darker part of the rose garden. Her gown was magnificent tonight, red velvet with gold lace and the most intricate gold and robin's-egg blue flowers and leaves embroidered on the underskirt and cuffs. The skirt was enormous, as elaborate as any in the finest European courts. A golden tiara with a red ruby heart as large as an egg glittered in her graying locks, swept into curls around her shoulders and the blue silk choker.

“Hello?” The darkness was less inviting and more stifling, perhaps because of the changing seasons. The moon had an orange harvest hue tonight that gave the crackling grass an eerie tone. “King? Girls? Princes?” All she heard were leave rustling in the wind and a few soft sighs. There had been the sound of footsteps a few minutes ago, but they were gone now. She sighed, playing with a diamond and ruby bracelet on her wrist. “I don't know why I'm bothering. He can't respond to me. I wish he could tell me his name, or which kingdom he rules. The princes refuse to talk about him. 'All in good time' isn't much of an answer.”

She felt a warm, leathery hand on her shoulder. “Oh, thank goodness!” She turned around to see...well, what little she could ever see of him. He wore a sable-trimmed black velvet cloak over his broad shoulders. The barest hint of a black vest and snow-white silk shirt glowed in the shadows. “I thought that sorcerer might have hurt you again.”

They settled down on the stone bench by a group of oak trees just turning from green to gold. The leather-clad hand, with their long fingers, reached over and tentatively touched her cheek, stroking it. “Why can't I see you? I have some idea of what you look like, but you never leave the darkness. I'd be able to help you more if you were visible.”

Feminine voices giggled from the near-by trees as she lay her head on his shoulder. Silver tresses as soft as fox fur were topped by a sapphire-trimmed crown glowed in the darkness, but is face remained obscured. The vague outline of a strong chin and striking, heavily lined cheekbones blurred into the deep orange shadows of a harvest moon.

“I think I have some idea of what's going on. I'm not certain, but I can guess.” She rubbed the gold ring with the signature of Alderaan on his finger. “I know this ring. I've seen it many times before. It's only worn by true Alderaanian royalty. You must have been a member of our court at one time, or even...”

He shook his head enthusiastically, the moonlight showing lips turning up in a familiar lazy smirk. “You...my husband...he used to do that, whenever he got one of his crazy ideas, or he wanted to tease me. You're so much like him. I miss him badly.”

Whispered voices and a few giggles emerged from the rustling bushes behind them, but she ignored them. “It reminds me of the time my Han was kidnapped by Vader, Father of Death, a terrible black magician, and sealed in a block of granite. Han had been a thief at one time, and he owed money to a greedy old sultan in the Kingdom of Tatoonie. My heart shattered when I saw the enchanted stone creep around his legs, then his arms. He...he kissed me, while he could still move, just before it reached his torso. I told him that I loved him, and he said...he said he knew.”

She couldn't help the sob that escaped from her lips. “I wish I could tell him that I know he loves me, too. Something terrible happened to him. I can feel it. He wouldn't have left me otherwise. Most of Alderaan thinks he was killed, but Luke and I know he wasn't.”

A series of “awwwws” and romantic sighs ruffled the yellowing leaves on the bushes behind them as strong arms reached out of the blackness to wrap Leia in their embrace. She looked up at him, her brown eyes shining with recognition. “Thank you.” She leaned into his strong chest, so warm and cozy. He rubbed her back, his fingers stealing under her buttons, then under her stays. The buttery leather against her delicate skin made her shudder with pleasure.

“That feels wonder,” she gasped as his fingers deftly moved down her back. “Han used to do that for me, after an especially stressful day dealing with the court. I'd do his shoulders. He'd get so tense! I don't think he ever got used to handling the nobles. He would rather be off racing horses.”

Her hand stole into the darkness, kneading hard under the navy coat, into the pure white silk. The whispers and rustling in the bushes intensified as she moaned, pushing hard into his shoulders. “Ohhh, this is wonderful!” Her back nearly arched from the pleasure. His pink lips opened and would have moaned deeply, had he been able to make any type of noise. “Ooohhhs!” went up from the bushes.

She gently ran her fingers from his shoulders and across his neck to the noble square chin. The skin was slashed by an ancient, jagged scar...one that she knew well. “It is you! I knew it. There's only one man in the world who could rub my back like that. I know that ring, too. If you can't come into the light...” Her milky face leaned into the indigo moonlight. “I'll love you in the shadows.”

Their lips were about to meet when they heard a crash behind them. Leia jumped up from the stone bench and the king retreated into the darkness as six young bodies clad in bright-colored brocades, velvets, and silks tumbled out of the bushes. The queen sighed in exasperation. “I was wondering where all of you you went. Shouldn't you be courting each other, instead of intruding on our time together?”

“You're a lot more interesting.” Poe brushed off his red brocade suit.

“Besides,” Kaydel added as she straightened the gold lace on her pink satin stomacher, “we wanted to make sure everything went right.”

“Well,” said a grinning Snap with stars in his eyes, “are you going to kiss him?”

Leia's grin broadened. The king's lazy smirk brightened the enveloping night. “We were about to do that when we were quite rudely interrupted...but since you asked, I think we'll return to it. After all,” she grinned as the boys whistled and the girls sighed, “he is my husband.”

But when her arms reached for her beloved Han, they came up empty. The handsome king had been replaced by a creaking figure in a heavy black cloak. “Where is he?” she cried out in anguish. “Where's Han? It's him, isn't it? You've kept him hidden from me all this time!” She turned to the shocked group behind her. “He is, isn't he, boys?”

Poe nodded. “We couldn't tell you. It is the King of Alderaan, but he's changed, Your Majesty. We all have.”

“You think you're so close to solving the mystery.” A bony finger slithered from under the sorcerer's heavy black cloak. Even the figure's short laugh exuded evil. “You and those silly girls. The youths belong to me, now, as does your precious husband.”

The young couples followed Leia as she stormed over to the wizened figure, giving him her best angry glare. “Han is his own man,” she fumed, shaking with rage. “Neither he nor the princes belong to you, like they were pets you could control!”

The man burst into laughter at Leia's mentioning pets. “It's rather amusing you should say that, Your Majesty,” he chortled. His laughter sounded quite familiar.

Prince Poe coughed as Finn and Snap exchanged looks. “Your Majesty, let him go,” the curly locked lad begged. “Please, he'll hurt us, or worse yet, hurt the king. You saw what he did to him the first time you were here.”

“I won't let him! Not this time!” Leia raised her hands, sending thorny vines slashing against the sorcerer, attacking him left and right. One vine managed to cut through the hood. Red blood dripped down the withered, dead-white cheeks.

“You'll pay for that dearly, Your Majesty.” His devils were already holding back the young people, dragging the boys away while the girls fought them with all their strength. The sorcerer wound his bony fingers through Leia's hair, yanking it hard, ignoring his daughters' screams. “As long as King Han is part of the shadows, he's still mine.”

“Mother!” Rey rushed to her as the lightning sent her sprawling to the ground. “Mother, please! Oh Mother, awaken!”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Mother!”

“Han...” Leia moaned. “Oh Han...please...no...”

“Mother!” The queen's eyes flew open. All three of her daughters stood around her, their eyes wide with worry. “Mother,” Rey insisted, “you were having a horrible nightmare. We could hear you screaming.”

Jessika frowned. “I think we all did.”

“He's here.” Leia threw her blankets aside. “At least, in my dream, he was.”

Kaydel exchanged worried looks with her sisters. “Who is, Mother?” she asked in surprise.

“Han.” Leia pulled on her silken robe. “I knew he was close-by. He's a prisoner, with the other boys.”

Rey gently took her hand. “Mother, we've searched every nook and cranny of this house, from top to bottom. I can feel them, too...but if they're here, they must be somewhere on the grounds.”

“We'll keep looking.” Jessika took her other hand. “There's four of them. You can't hide a king and three princes forever.”

“Unless you had magic.” Kaydel put her arms around Leia's back. “I wonder if that nasty old sorcerer turned them into something. Maybe like the frogs downstairs.”

“Yes,” Leia began thoughtfully, “I wonder.”

There was a knock on the door before Leia could wonder further. “Breakfast is ready,” Finn told them. “The Master wants Miss Leia to eat with him in his room. He's...feeling poorly today.”

Leia got to her feet, flinging the door open so hard, Finn nearly fell in with it. “Is he all right? Did something happen to him? He never misses our library time.”

Finn sighed. “You'll see upstairs, Miss. He ran afoul of...him...again.”

“All right.” She reached for a simple yellow day dress, then turned to her daughters. “But no more searching for the princes. We'll figure out another way to find them.”

The girls nodded. “It'll be easier with all of us, anyway,” Rey pointed out. “You're the one who knows what King Han actually looks like out of the dark. We've only seen his picture.”

“Good.” Leia pulled out her stays. “I'll see you at breakfast. Kaydel, help the servant with the boys' broth and our eggs.”

“Yes, Mother,” they chorused as she dressed as quickly as she could, then hurried out the door.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“You really need to find better excuses for being this burnt than walking into the fireplace.” Leia wrapped Harold's badly singed and reddened skin with thick bandages that the spines couldn't poke through. There were burns all over his body, from the top of his spines to the ends of his webbed feet. The normally slimy skin was so burned in some places that it had dried and begun to pucker. “For one thing, these don't look like burns from a fire. More from an electrical charge, like lightning.”

“I tell you,” Harold croaked from under his blankets, “I walked into the fire on accident!”

“When we first arrived, you fell down the stairs. Now, you'll falling into the fireplace.” Leia rubbed the last bandage with soothing aloe, then rolled it as best she could around his spines. “Really, I don't think you're that clumsy. You're not clumsy at other times. Did that sorcerer harm you again? The one who abused you the day after we arrived?” She looked him straight in his bulging eyes. “The one who's holding Han hostage here?”

Harold said nothing for a few minutes. When he did croak, it was soft and sad. “Yes. His apprentice is jealous of my wards, and he and his apprentice want to rule in my place. With me out of the way, he'll be able to take over my life.” He flexed his webbed hand and winced. “I've fought back, fought as hard as I can, but it does no good. The sorcerer is strong, and I have no magic.”

“But I do.” Leia took his webbed hand in hers. It was much easier to hold with rolls of old white fabric covering the spines. “And so does my daughter, Rey. We will do everything we can to protect you and your wards from that sorcerer. I promise.”

“Thanks, sweetheart.” Her heart leaped at the way he called her “sweetheart.” “Actually,” he continued, his bulging hazel eyes shining with hope, “that you might...sleep with me? Just for tonight.”

“Not tonight. Maybe soon.” She kissed his brow. “Right now, you need rest.”

He squeezed her hand. “Promise you won't leave me?”

She smiled. His heart nearly thumped out of his chest. “I promise.”